St. Paul daily globe., 1887-06-01
The Author Of Dorothy" an Amateur
Production That Once Created
Something of a Fur0re.
Several Important Civil Gases That
Came to Light in the Courts
in Single Day.
Bv Commodore Davidson's Will His
Great Estate is to Be Divided
in His Family.
THE AUTHOR OF DOROTHY"
After Five Years His Name is
Given to the Public.

Given 10 tilc i ubltC.
A little more than five years ago many
members of st. Paul'S elite society will
remember play was given i'll the old
opera house which stood where the
Grand was since erected, by local talent
in which two young ladies, Misses Ella
and MAY Banning, figured in the leading.
role.
The play created considerable excite
ment. and after its first presentation
was repeated by request, and filled the
opera house with as large and cultured
an audience as ever looked across row
of footlightS III st. Paul. The stage
setting of Il draWing-room scene cost up
wards of 5000 and the costumes of the
actors were exceedingly rich.
The Misses Banning were the beauti
ful daughters of Col. Banning, pioneer
and wealthy citizen of st. Paul, now
president of the St. Louis River Dells
Improvement company, residing at rs
Wilkin street. They moved i'll recherche
society, and had won an enviable local
reputation as elOcutioniStS. The play
which was written especially for them
was entitled Dorothy" and SO favora
BILE an impression did it make on the
minds of those who heard it,
that diligent inquiry was made as
to the authorship. The young
ladies for whom the play was written
said it had been given them under the
stipulation that they should not divulge
the name of the author for five years,
and they kept their contract SO
faithfully that the name of the person
who wrote it was never given to the pub
lie and many st. Paul citizens with
literary tendencies was falsely accused
of being the author.
The years rolled by and Miss Ella
Banning, the eldest, became Mrs. Aver.
She married a son OF the famous Dr.. j..
c. Aver, lately deceased, who made an
IMMENSE FORTUNE
out of the patent medicines with which
he flooded the market. Mrs. Aver now
lives in Lowell. Mass. where she en-
joys the advantages that the great in
heritance of her husband can give her.
Miss May Banning is yet unmarried.
\ few weeks ago Col. Banning went
East to pay his daughter a visit and
while there it occurred to Mrs. Aver
that five years had expired and she was
at liberty to give to the people of st.
Paul, whom she knew would be pleased
to know, the name of the author of the
play.sDorothy." She gave the name to
her father and upon his return recently,
he told it to some of his friends. The
author was DR.. Brewer Mattocks, who
was born and reared in st. Paul, being
the son of Rev. John Mattocks, Pres
byterian clergyman, and was for some
time city physician here and is now
practicing his profession at Faribault,
this State.
DR.. MattockS was never suspected of
the authorship of the play. He is spoken
of as man peculiar in his ways, but
NOBODY DREAMED
that his mind had drift towards the
press or the stage. 1t has since devel-
Oped that he was valuable contributor
to some of the leading medical period
icalS-publiShed in this country.
About seven years ago DR.. Matlocks
became disgruntled at treatment he had
received at the hands of the ci y govern
ment. and at almost days notice he
removed his family from the city and
located in Faribault, and since that time
he never set foot in st. Paul until about
one month ago, when golden wedding
was given NJ. n. Kellogg, who was an
intimate friend of the doctor. Since
DIR. MattOcks' departure from st. Paul
wOnderfHl changes in the city had taken
place and when he alightedfrOm the train
and made his way up town he was COM
pleteSYr rbeWfdered. Fortunately he met
frfeflf on Third street, who acted the
guide for him and drove the awe-Struck
doctor through the crowded streets, that
were hardly more than country roads
when he last saw them. The doctor
told his friend that since he had been
given an introduction to the new St.
Paul, he should pay her frequent visits.
Thisis the story of Dorothy and its
author.